Gameboard II: New Game
by DarkBeta
Summary: AU. Everybody's dead. How can there be a sequel?
1. Wilderness

Chapter 1: Wilderness

Chief Kamo fell over.

In the dim remains of the undersea lab, flooded with the strange white fire of Nambu Hakase's device, he watched the Galactor's flee. Then he was on a level plain, with the scent of open air and new green grass. There was no jolt, no sudden shift in footing. Where he stood, he stood as if he always had. It was sheer shocked disbelief that dropped him onto the ground.

He wasn't the only one. He saw others waver, heard their cries. He scrambled to his feet again, staring at a stalk of grass that had tangled itself in his thick fingers. He turned around, and saw a pillar of white fire.

If that marked the site of Hakase's device . . . yes, there was Nambu, standing as calmly as if the world hadn't changed around him, watching the fountain of energy, with a toddler still laughing in his arms. Kamo charged toward him.

"Where are we? Hakase, what's going on?"

Nambu didn't turn around.

"Well. That was more successful than I had hoped."

"Did you know this would happen? Is it . . . is this real?"

"It was always a possibility. But the probabilities . . . . How could I mention so hopeful an outcome, without unfairly influencing everyone's consent?"

"Galactor is behind us. If my calculations are correct, we exist in a healthy and reasonably stable ecosphere with no equivalent intelligences."

He looked away from the manifestation long enough to meet Kamo's eyes, and handed him the child. The toddler patted Kamo's cheek.

"Anything that does jump out of the bushes will be looking for a meal. You might mention that, before too many people wander off. We'll need to consider the necessities; food and water and a defensible position."

He spoke without urgency. His attention returned to the fiery manifestation. It was smaller than it had been, ebbing slowly but visibly.

"Why do you keep staring at that?!"

"Hope. The most unjustified and desperate hope," Nambu said flatly.

Mentally Kamo threw up his hands. Hakase didn't play 'absent-minded professor' often, but when he did there was no shaking him. The burden of his thought was so often the welfare of the ISO, or the world, that disturbing him might not be wise. Kamo himself could do what needed to be done.

To start with, he had to find out who the baby belonged to. From the smell, attentions were required which Kamo didn't feel qualified to offer.

)+ #+#+#&((

"Hakase? Rodriguez and Chang found a good-sized waterway about two kilometers downhill. We're going to find a bluff we can make camp on, while the sun's still up."

"Yes. A good plan," Hakase acknowledged, staring at the white fire.

It had ebbed to barely more than a campfire's height and circumference, flickering even lower as Kamo watched. The ground it's dimishment uncovered wasn't harmed. Blades of grass and tiny bright flowers emerged from the milkwhite sheets of energy as if they were newly created. Kamo shifted his shoulders uneasily.

"What is that stuff? Is it going to burn itself out?"

"The gate is nearly shut . . . . I will be along in a while."

"I'm not leaving you here by yourself."

Nambu looked around. Kamo blinked at the change in his appearance. Months of little food and less hope had left the scientist as diminished as the rest of the refugees. Even halt a day before though, he hadn't looked so ancient.

Kamo folded his arms. He wasn't going to let Nambu shoo him away. The man had done enough. The last survivors of the ISO owed him their lives. (Though they might never understand how.) Others could tend well enough to their new necessities.

"Very well. I suppose there is some possibility of an energy release as the trans-universal linkage is severed."

"Energy release," Kamo asked suspiciously.

"Explosion."

"Why am I not surprised?"

He wasn't going to hurry Nambu. The man looked suddenly frail. But Kamo felt a prickle across his back as they walked away from the guttering pillar. Between Galactor and Jun the Swan, he wasn't unfamiliar with things that went 'boom'. A rope that stretched between universes though . . . . When that snapped, it might be a larger 'boom' than he cared to see.

The others were not so far ahead. Ill-fed, exhausted people moved slowly. Ill-fed and exhausted children were even slower. Kamo made a quick assessment as he and Nambu followed them across the brow of a swale.

Something over three-hundred survivors, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. A handful of the elderly. A few handfuls of men and women his age, or Hakase's. Some handfuls more of men old enough to fight, but too damaged to do so. At least twice their number of young women. The rest, nearly three-quarters, were children even younger than the Kagutai Ninja Tai. More than half were orphans, sent to the best safety available while their parents fought and died.

The new world - new universe, if he understood Hakase - was more survivable than Galactor. That was a relative distinction though. Considered as colonists on an alien shore, could the remnants of the ISO really hope to live in this wilderness?

"We can, and we will," Nambu said, and Kamo realized he must have spoken aloud. "I will not let their sacrifice be wasted!"

Finally Kamo realized what had aged and diminished Nambu Hakase, what must have been the last burden he could carry. He had sent out the Kagutai Ninja Tai to hold back the enemy, to make a path that took others to safety but which they themselves couldn't follow. Against his desire, he had outlived his children.

Kamo said what little he could.

"We will survive, Hakase," he promised.

_[Spider Robinson (Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, et al) had a habit that irritated me, of taking an excellent but tragic short story and turning it into a less excellent novel with a - comparatively - happy ending. Now look what i've done!]_


	2. Miracle

Chapter 2: Miracle

The light behind them washed color out of the world, and for an instant changed the grassland to white and shadow.

"Everybody down!" Kamo shouted, sweeping Hakase off his feet and falling across him.

Rigid, he waited for the pulverizing shockwave, the wash of heat, the thunder of the explosion.

What he got instead was a middle-aged scientist who suddenly seemed an excellent imitation of a commando. An elbow drove the air from his lungs. He outweighed Nambu Hakase by half again, and still a shoulder blow tossed him aside. By the time he scrambled up to all fours, choking and coughing, Nambu was yards away, racing back up the slope. Kamo looked up, and saw . . . .

White wings that covered the sky. A beak that could seize the moon like a grain of corn. An eye too bright to meet.

"Phoenix!" Kamo gasped, and then, doubtfully, "The phoenix-effect?"

The image faded even as he saw it, wings shredding to haze and feathers of cloud, the bright eye resolving into the sun. His eyes watered. He blinked, trying to get rid of the floating after-images.

Not all of those shadows were sun-scars though. Like a flight of enemy planes, five figures fell out of the light. Unjustifiable hope . . . . Kamo took a surprised breath, and pounded after Nambu.

Ahead of him Nambu flung out a warding arm. Kamo skidded to a stop, panting, and then stepped forward more cautiously. Five still figures were strewn on the new green grass. The way they had fallen . . . . Was a happy ending to be snatched away so gratuitously?

"Are they . . . ?"

"Alive."

The word should have rumbled for five minutes in an echo chamber, to hold all the meanings Nambu gave it. Alive, against the laws of reason. Alive, but for how long? Alive, and the weight of their deaths taken from his shoulders. Alive, so he might hope again. Alive!

Calming, Nambu could see them breathe. He flushed, and made sure he was looking at the boys. Whatever force carried the Kagutai Ninja Tai here, hadn't brought their clothes along. Without armbands or uniforms, they would be warriors still, but not the superheroes who defied Galactor.

Joe woke first. He rolled onto all fours. He put a hand out and brushed at Ken's shoulder, awkwardly, as if he'd forgotten he had fingers to grip with. He did it again, and . . . whimpered?

At Kamo's gasp Joe swung about. He blinked, dark eyes focusing, and lurched forward. Still not rising to his feet, he set himself between the two men and the other four bodies. He crouched, head low, and snarled.

"Hakase. His eyes . . . !"

That devil Katze himself had held the thin blades and sliced . . . .

"Look away. If you stare it's a challenge," Hakase instructed.

Ken opened his eyes and lurched to his feet. Kamo hoped for a moment that he at least was normal, until he saw the way the boy stood. Leaning forward, head up, fingers spread parallel to the ground. The stance made Kamo's back ache in sympathy. Ken opened his mouth and . . . shrieked? The cry was fierce and defiant and only marginally human.

Joe's head came up. He spun back, so quick his hair floated on the air, crept toward his commander . . . and then rolled onto his back and waved hands and feet in the air. Ken rocked a little from side to side, opening and closing his mouth. Joe rose to all fours again, crouching beside and a little behind him.

Ken was standing, unsupported. He didn't seem to favor either leg. Kamo gaped at that, until Jun shot to her feet.

Her pose was a variant of Ken's, crouching, with her arms to the side and fingers spread in a plane perpendicular to the ground, her chin down and her chest out. All the fingers spread, on both hands. She moved her arms forward, as if slapping at a wall before her. She was farther from childhood than Kamo had thought.

He flushed and looked at Jinpei and Ryu instead. Jinpei crawled out past Jun's knees like a cat and then sat up, grinning, hands folded in front of him like a squirrel. Ryu rolled onto all fours and then crouched there, blinking slowly as he looked around.

Nambu took a step toward them. Kamo reached to hold him back, and then let his hand drop. The children were physically healed, but at what cost? Would they recover from this . . . madness? If they didn't the burden would be heavy, on survivors already burdened by the need to build new strange lives.

The burden would be heavy, but they would shoulder it. The Kagutai Ninja Tai deserved at least that much from the ISO survivors. They did, and Hakase did.

"Ken, it's Hakase. Do you remember me? Ken?"

The young man blinked, and moved a little closer to upright.

"Get up, Joe. Katze's dead. You did it. You avenged your parents."

Joe tilted his head and sat on his haunches, with his hands on the ground in front of his feet. Nambu took off his lab coat.

"Jun? Jinpei? You don't have to fight any more. Jun, please put on my coat. This isn't proper."

Jun's chin came up, and she drew her hands in toward her shoulders. Jinpei crawled a few lengths closer and sat up again.

"Ryu, this is a new place, with new rivers and new seas. We need your skills. We need all five of you. Please, remember."

And finally Ken stood upright again, and rubbed a hand across his eyes.

"Hakase? What . . . how . . . ?"

"I'll explain what I can, but we should join the others first."

Jun straightened too, then looked down and blushed extensively. Nambu folded the lab coat around her shoulders. She pulled it close. A moment too late Kamo looked up at the sky. Striations of cirrus covered it, that didn't look at all like feathers or wings.

"Jun? Everyone, are you all right?"

"Decided to give Jun a treat, eh, Ken?" Joe said. "Way to impress a girl."

"What? Oh!"

Hastily Ken turned his back on the others, made a helpless gesture toward covering himself, and finally sat down. His face was redder than Jun's. She ducked her head and put a hand across her mouth, but her eyes were laughing.

"Anybody got a fig leaf?" Ryu asked.

Like Joe, he had not bothered to stand up. Hastily Kamo took his own coat off, and began ripping it into panels as he strode forward to join Nambu. Jinpei sneered at the length Kamo handed him.

"I'm not wearing a diaper! I'd rather go naked."

"It's not a diaper. It's a loincloth," Jun told him.

"Hey, like Kioga of the Wilderness!"

"No somersaults until you get more clothes. And no cartwheels!" his sister warned, a minute too late.

As they walked downhill to join the others Ken appeared - with the connivance of his friends - to be attempting a demonstration of terminal embarassment. Joe muttered into one ear, and Ken blushed. Jun whispered into the other, and Ken blushed again. Even Jinpei and Ryu called less-than-innocent comments. Hakase dropped back to walk with Kamo.

"I would prefer if you didn't mention the way we first found them."

"Of course."

"They had no chance to be ordinary before. Maybe now they do. Whatever ordinary turns out to be, here."

"Of course," Kamo said again.

But he looked at the five youngsters ranging ahead of them, and he didn't really believe it. He rather thought that Nambu didn't believe either.


	3. Magic

Chapter 3: Magic

The malaise that had held Hakase was ended. As he and Kamo followed the rest of the ISO survivors down toward the river, he volleyed questions about the number and condition of the survivors, the geology of the river valley, and the wildlife Kamo's scouts might have seen, until Kamo began to feel he'd been entirely unobservant.

"We should be able to find dry driftwood along the river bank, and fire will ward off predators as well as cooking any fish we can catch. The question is, how do we light it?"

"Hai, hai," Kamo agreed.

He was distracted by the behavior of the team. They were clothed now. The chill of the undersea base meant that the refugees had worn every layer available; layers that were unnecessary in the warm afternoon of the place where they'd come. The Kagutai Ninja Tai had received offers of far more clothing than they needed, and looked no scruffier than any of the other refugees.

He had thought they'd walk together, though. Hadn't he seen them often enough in better days, gathered for a mission, or just waiting for a mission to be assigned? Even in the refuge an intangible social wall had said, "We belong together. You have no place between us."

Here, they were scattered. There was Ken, on one side of the column near the front, listening courteously as Rodriguez gestured (describing the path he'd scouted, Kamo thought). And on the other side Joe ranged ahead, alone, with the width of the column between him and Ken, and some twenty meters beside.

Halfway toward the end of the column, Ryu strode with his hands in the pockets of the borrowed lab coat, humming a chanty. He didn't seem to notice the eight-year-old boy striding behind him in the exact same pose, or the three teenage girls giggling behind their hands.

Jun and Jinpei were at the tail of the column, just ahead of Nambu and Kamo. Jun had a child pick-a-back and a toddler in her arms, and chatted easily with a young mother. Jinpei juggled stones in the air to amuse a clutch of younger kids. Then the brush rustled. Something small and quick and brown darted toward the procession, with something larger and orange behind it.

Jun took a step that put her between the animals and the cluster of children. Jinpei caught one stone out of the air and held it ready to throw.

The smaller animal, something like a rabbit, and the fox-sized beast behind it, both realized what they were headed for at the same moment. The rabbit went scut over nose, and both of them reversed themselves. For a moment, before they both vanished in the brush, the prey seemed to be chasing the hunter.

"Neechan, did you see the bunny? Wouldn't it make a cool pet?" Jinpei asked.

None of the stones he was juggling had dropped. The children were still fascinated. The young woman talking to Jun hadn't noticed the animals at all. Up ahead, Ryu looked forward again. He was still ignoring the giggles, but his face looked rather red.

Kamo hadn't seen Ken give any orders, nor any discussion within the team. They took position as shepherds to an unwieldly flock as if by instinct.

"They are guardians still," Nambu said, with pride and regret. "Now, what can we do about starting a fire? Just this morning . . . well, earlier . . . I lit a burner and left the matches on the counter. If only I'd dropped them in my pocket instead!"

He snapped his fingers in regret. Kamo stared at him. Hakase looked behind himself, and then back to Kamo.

"What is it?"

Kamo pointed.

"That doesn't hurt?"

"What doesn't . . . ?"

Finally Nambu's eyes followed Kamo's stare down to the small yellow flame glowing above finger and thumb.


End file.
